Alison

If Your Life was a Movie, What Would the Soundtrack Be?So, here's how it works:1. Open your iTunes library2. Put it on shuffle3. Press play4. For every question, type the song that's playing5. When you go to a new question, press the next button6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits: "Too Many Cooks" by the Robert Cray Band from Who's Been Talking"Let me butter your buns while you stir the stew". We're clearly in for a raunchy time.

Waking Up: "Jigs from Headington Quarry" by Father Kenneth Lovelace MBE from The Magic of Morris. I wake up to the sound of morris tunes played on a melodeon. Well, that seems fair enough. The second of these jigs is a version of Princess Royal, but I'm not sure what the first one is.

First Day At School: "Humours of Tulla / Fox Hunter's Reel / St Anne's Reel" by Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham from The Best of Aly and Phil. That is presumably my first day at a Scottish primary school, then, in 1974. I was nine.

Falling in Love: "Bill Norrie" by pdcawley. Hello Piers! It's a great version, and it did come up at random, I promise.

"Down there comes the woman that I have loved so long". I guess this film is a bit of a black comedy.

Breaking Up: "All Among the Barley" by a couple of women at the folk club the week before last.

"The leaves are turning yellow, and fading into red"

Prom: "Flyer" by Elephant Talk from Elephant Talk Live. I was never into the whole prom thing. But this is the sort of stuff I like to dance to, well enough.

Life is Good: "The Setting of the Sun" by Seth Lakeman from the first version of Freedom Fields

"I freely forgive you for this paradise I've won"This song is a Polly Vaughan and it's hard to find the good life in it; in this version the shot sweetheart turns up as a swan to forgive the singer. Songs on this theme are more normally associated with mental breakdown...

Mental Breakdown: "Sweet Liberty" by Susan McKeown from Sweet Liberty

"Our farmers, our artists, our tradesmen are going to seek for employment far over the sea, where they will get riches with care and industry; there's nothing but hardship at home if you stay."

Driving: "Moll Dubh a Ghleanna" by Altan from Altan's Finest(translation) "Black Molly of the glen has my heart in her keeping". We're clearly driving over a green hill in this scene.

Flashback: "Chain Lightning" by Rush from Presto

"Respond, vibrate, feedback, resonate". This is the flashback to the period of my life when I liked hopelessly pretentious music with overblown lyrics. Though in truth I never liked Presto, which I bought for 99p in a bargain bin at Woollies. Why do I keep it in iTunes? For times like this.

Getting Back Together: "Infinity" by Mouth Music from Shorelife

"Have you ever wandered in the deep and constant flow?"

Wedding: "A Recent Future" by James Keelaghan from A Recent Future

"What is past is brightly coloured, sharply drawn and clear, the future's sketchy, though it's close, it's never near"

Paying the Dues: "A Calling-On Song" by Steeleye Span from hark! The Village Wait

"We'll play on to the beat of the drum". I really like calling on songs, and I have amazingly few in my collection; probably reflecting their current rarity.

The Night Before The War: "Sir Eglamore" by Kate Rusby from Hourglass

"This dragon had a plaguey hide and could the sharpest steel abideNo sword could enter through her skin, which vexed the knight and made her grin"

This song is both one of the oldest folk ballads with both words and tune; this tune's probably 400 years old. And it has a dragon in it! They're jolly rare in the English folk tradition, and this one was probably imported from France along with the knight.

Final Battle: "Polkas (Scartaglen/Jimmy Leary's/The Humours of Ballydesmond)" by the Oysterband from Alive and Acoustic

And the dragon goes down in a mass of wild electric-backed fiddle and melodeon goodness.

Moment of Triumph: "Step by Step" by the Alan Parsons Project from Eye in the Sky

"Step by step the deal is mine".

Death Scene: "Billy Boy" by Martin Carthy from Rigs of the Time

"She lay so close to me as the bark is to the tree" No death in this one, but Child links it to Lord Rendal, which is the one in which the hero dies of green and yeller eels.